Wireless communication systems are known to comprise console monitoring positions which communicate to a plurality of communication units. The establishment of such communications is often under the control of a zone controller that allocates system resources to establish the communication. Each console operator position has audio information sent to and received from the appropriate communication units via the wireless communication system.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system 100 in accordance with prior art systems comprising a zone controller 101 that controls communication resource allocation, an audio switch 102 that is used to route audio throughout the wireless communication system 100, and a console 103 that is used to communicate with a plurality of communication units 106. Wireless communication resources 107 are transceived between the communication units 106 and the zone controller 101 via base stations/repeaters 105. A multiplexer 104 is used to multiplex multiple audio signals from both the console 103 and the base stations/repeaters 105 into time division multiplexed (TDM) interfaces of the audio switch 102.
Current communication systems, such as that shown in FIG. 1, require that each console in the system (there can be more than one) have complete access to all audio information present in the wireless communication system. As such, consoles filter out necessary inbound audio information (i.e., audio information directed to a console from a communication unit) based on a console user's input. This results in an inefficient utilization of system resources and increased complexity of consoles.
A further consequence of this requirement is that the zone controller needs to keep track of which communication resources, such as wireless communication resources and time slots within an audio switch, are being used by any given console at any time. To this end, the zone controller requires complex control algorithms and extensive databases which are both costly and difficult to implement. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method for establishing communications in wireless communication systems that allows efficient resource utilization and reduces complexity of zone controllers and consoles.